Now get Hull Trains back on track, PM – The Yorkshire Post says

The Prime Minister’s first visit to Yorkshire since the Covid-19 pandemic struck, his choice of location – the Siemens high speed train manufacturing plant at Goole – was another endorsement of HS2.

But the trip also came on the very day that the Social Market Foundation, a leading think-tank, identified nearby Hull as the area most likely to be worst hit by the recession. Bradford was second.

And while such forecasts given credence to the Northern Powerhouse and ‘levelling up’ agendas, they are another reminder that skills – and jobs – matter as much as big infrastructure projects.

Unless young people in Hull, and surrounding area, receive sufficient training, and opportunities to prove themselves, they won’t be able to take advantage of the opportunities being provided by firms like Siemens.

Equally, Hull will struggle to attract private sector investment, and visitors from other parts of the country unless its direct rail link to London is restored as a matter of urgency.

Unlike rail franchises, Hull Trains – formed 20 years ago – is an ‘open access’ operator that is effectively funded by the fares paid by passengers.

Yet its trains were taken out of service at the start of the lockdown and there are continuing concerns about the firm’s viability because of the extent to which social distancing rules will curtail passenger numbers.

Despite extensive lobbying by Tory and Labour MPs from Hull and East Yorkshire, the deadlock persists and the Government now needs to act if this vital service is to get back on track. After all, this prolonged impasse would not be happening if it was a key commuter line in the South East, would it?

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James Mitchinson, Editor